National Basketball Association

Kevin Durant and the Suns are all-in on an NBA Title chase

Updated Feb. 21, 2023 11:20 a.m. ET

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Martin Rogers

FOX Sports Insider

Often in sports, we come across situation where only one outcome makes sense. You just can't imagine it happening any other way. The script feels written.

In truth, the games we love and the situations that surround them rarely go exactly to plan, but that doesn't stop us from claiming with defiant certainty that such and such is about to occur, passionately defending our assertion.

The new-look Phoenix Suns are not that. Despite adding Kevin Durant in an absolute whopper of a trade last week, we're not in the "one likely outcome" space here. Neither are we in the "anything can happen" kind of spot, and yes, sports does like to boil its plots down to snappy catchphrases. Sorry, not sorry.

Here's another thing to keep in mind about Phoenix's fresh look: We are in the realm of "all or nothing."

For how can we not be? Bringing in Durant and combining him with Paul and Booker should be a catapult towards a title run. On paper, they're absolutely good enough, and the Western Conference is presently struggling enough, to immediately become the West's most powerful force.

That's what new owner Mat Ishbia is hoping for, following up his $4 billion acquisition of the $un$ with a mega-splash for Durant that had all of sports talking.

The point here is that it wouldn't be a shock. A long-awaited ring on Paul's finger … you can sense it. Booker repeating his excellence from the 2021 postseason, perhaps even more so with a new buddy to play off of. Durant sitting with the trophy in mid-July, with a "told you so" smirk.

If all that happens, no one is going to say, "whoa, I just didn't see that coming."

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Because you can already envision how they'd do it, with Paul distributing, relieved of any scoring burden. Durant and Booker on the wings, finding more than enough space compared to what they need. For these are guys best handled by a double team, and how do you do that when there are two of them? By clearing space for center Deandre Ayton to do damage.

Yeah, that's not a mirage. It's how, all things being equal, it should probably go.

"I'm one of the greatest players to ever play the game," Durant said at his unveiling. "Every time I step on the floor, people are going to expect me to do great things, and the team I'm on to do great things."

Sounds good. But doesn't sound inevitable. Because there is another possibility that wouldn't surprise you either.

If it all just goes wrong.

If Paul and Booker and Durant, all of whom have had either major or persistent injury problems, don't see enough time on the court together.

If it begins to fray, and if, when some fraying happens, Durant gets frustrated and retreats into himself. And if it then it snowballs, with opponents sensing weakness, the fact they've not spent enough time together beginning to tell and some other team, during the early rounds, picking them off by being just too resilient and organized and feisty.

Durant is 34 now and has played for four NBA franchises, somewhat rare for a superstar of his caliber. He is searching for peace and harmony but hasn't been blameless in the disruption.

He found that he didn't like being the best player but the fourth wheel at Golden State. He didn't like anything much about what was going on in Brooklyn but ultimately could have, had he wished, made the ultimate legacy play by trying to take the Nets' limited pieces on a run this postseason, once Kyrie Irving had gone.

He didn't want that, either.

Now there is a greater degree of pressure and scrutiny than at any point in his career. If the Suns don't win, the critics will be neither forgiving nor nice.

You never know quite where you stand with Durant. He tries very hard to portray that he's unaffected by what is said about him, but the evidence suggests that he reads everything, feels everything, and gets hurt by anything that isn't entirely complimentary.

He is in an interesting position now. He's on a franchise that has never won a title and is trying to do so with a team that came together 22 games before the end of the regular season. With an owner who's been around for five minutes.

I mean, why not?

FOXBet has Phoenix's NBA title odds at +400 because they have arguably the best trio in the league. They have the makings of a champion. Yet somehow, also the shakiness of a fringe contender.

Vindication for Durant's decision looks like only one thing, with no other alternatives.

Championship or bust.

It has become, in short order, the storyline of the season, Will Durant and the Suns win it all … or nothing.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider newsletter. Follow him on Twitter @MRogersFOX and subscribe to the daily newsletter.

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Martin Rogers